Wednesday, 13 March 2013

Thoughts on writing


Heyya everyone and no one who reads this blog ;)

I've got a big party coming up for my little brother so writing's kinda been put on the back-burner for the moment, sadly. I've spent tons of time going through old family movies from when we were 2 and 3 and we were so adorable, I want to eat us up. Sadly, we grew...

Well, writings going well, I guess. In the spare hour I had I wrote 2 pages, which is quite a lot, i guess. I have an average of 475 words a page at the moment, so that's like 900 words in an hour, which is pretty impressive if I do say so myself.

The hardest thing for me is editing. Idea's come to me really easy so but once I have an idea I don't want to change or edit what i've done. and THEN i hit a block and get so frustrated that I stop writing until I get another idea and start the process again. 2 full chapters and a prologue so far -- the most i've ever done, and i'm proud.

You know, I think I'll throw a party when I hit 50 pages... or maybe 20,000 words, whichever comes first. I'm currently on 8,408 words and i'm about half way down my 18th page so feel free to guess which will come first ;)

Well, since I have free time and I am obviously stalling by writing this kinda pointless blog since no one will read it and I don't want anyone that I know to read it but it's fun anyway.  I'm also planning to be like some of my favourite authors: Shelly Crane and Nicole MacDonald to name a few, and write a blog so if I ever become famous people can read my blog!

I really don't know how often you're supposed to blog, but we'll see how i go!

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Writing is like climbing mount everest, but in many ways harder. It's not something physical that you can push yourself and practice on. Climbing mount everest doesn't feel like you are revealing part of your soul to every single person who watches or hears about your climb. Writing is, and you also have to balance the line between not copying something else that someone else did and feeling confident in your own idea's enough that you feel confident to show someone. Writing means that you have to keep going, even when it's so easy to give up. There is no end in sight, no-one who can accompany you on your work, and no amount of training can prepare you. You have to balance your time, make sure it's not too long or too short. You have to make sure you have a story line and you also have to accommodate to your audience.

Climbing mount everest is a test of physical endurance, but writing is part of my soul, my genetic makeup. It's hard to let that out and share something so personal with people I don't even know. There is no end in sight, and only the strong will make it. It is survival of the fittest, and our doubts place the weight of the world and anybody around us' problems on our backs. It stresses us out more and makes us overreact to things we normally wouldn't. It can mean that we are in a constant dreamland, can make it hard to have relationships with others, and can make you really sensitive. This is the price of writing, and I have accepted it and I want to do it. But it can in no way compare to climbing mount everest (although I am much happier sitting at my keyboard wrapped up in a blanket than I am on a freezing cold, steep mountain.)

Has anyone died by writing??

Well, that's my philosophical thought for the day :P
g'night and have a nice day :D


Queen of Reading
Keep on reading, forget the dreaming :)
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4 comments:

  1. Sione28 March 2013 at 12:22

    I found what you said about getting stuck with editing really interesting. You get stuck because you feel a sense of allegiance to the story as it first came out and don't want to change it, but you also don't know how to work with what you have...is that right?

    For me it's a little different. I'm open to changing things, but I don't know what I should change. What are the things that make a difference, and which things don't? I have a hard time judging that in my own writing.

    Thanks for the post, Jenna!

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    1. Queen of Reading29 March 2013 at 16:55

      Yeah I'm the total opposite! But you totally get me, which is amazing!! If you need any help editing, or input with your ideas, or just a test audience, just flick me an email! Always happy to help!!

      Thanks for the reply Sione :)

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  2. GL Tomas2 May 2013 at 15:33

    I agree with you when it comes to editing. The writing is the easy part but the editing takes real effort. Even going over my work three times over i know it's still not publish ready, that I will leave in the hands of an editor, but I found this particular post interesting.

    If you're ever looking for a beta reader or just a second set of eyes, I'd be happy to help!Sometimes it takes a second opinion to help your story flow :)

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    1. Queen of Reading3 May 2013 at 00:42

      thanks :)

      I've got a friend who's also writing, and we are each others beta-readers (she tells everyone else the plan for what's happening and I have to guess. I'm her test audience) so that's good! The other advice I've gotten (and freely give out) is that you should just write as it comes, in whatever forms easiest, and then edit later. That means that if you have to write a paragraph in 3rd and the rest is in 1st, then do it. Unfortunately, that makes editing harder, but if it helps get the ideas out then hey, why not!

      The best thing for me is that I don't plan. For my current WIP, I was actually going to base it on Medusa, but instead it's become something TOTALLY different. Therefore, writing is almost as easy as reading, because it just comes out of me, I don't have to think about how to make this section lead to that section, because I don't know what's coming next! Makes me really bad at giving others advice but, hey, it works for me!!

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